The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-10

brought the same sensation of possible
danger, some spirit in her feet" seemed
to carry her over the garden wall and
down the hill-slope to the security of
grandmamma's, who was $50 particular
about keeping Saturday night" 1t was
dull certainly, but it was absolutely safe,
and Nita was in mood to prefer safety,
however dull, to any risk, however enter
tanning.
The sun was just touching the horizons
edge as she opened the well-known door.
A Sabbath stiffness seemed already to
have settled upon the keeping room"
where her aunt and grandmother sat, one
with her Bible opened before her, the
other with fat, leather. bound volume of
Scott's Commentaries. Every secular
book and newspaper had already been put
out of sight. The fire burned with hushed
cackle. In the next room stood the table
already laid for supper, and in the buttery
the cold joint, the cranberry sauce and
the pie waited to-morrow's dinner time.
Beyond the necessary making OF beds,
washing OF cups and plates, and the boil
ing of the kettle, no household work
would be done on the premises until the
next setting of the sedulously watched
sun should end the still, solemn ina,tion,
and restore the dwelling to it's wonted
routine Of cheerful life.
Aunt Eunice looked up as Mia came
noiselessly in and stopped to kiss her
grandmother.
"Thst's right, dear," she said. "We
are glad to seq you. There are Fordyce's
Sermons and Laws Serious Call on the
table. laid them out hoping you would
come"
Mia helped herself to Laws Serious
Call, and settled into obedient quiet on
the other side of the fire. Her eyes were
on her book, but her thoughts were far
away. She was rejecting that just at
that moment Ned Baum was probably
ringing the door bell at home, and hear
ing that she was inaccessible for the
night, as she had been last week, and the
week before, and the fortnight before
that, and with the thought came little
half hysterical chuckle, which made
Aunt Eunice look up sharply. But Their
was nothing to be seen; Nitas face was
perfectly grave.
As it CHANGED, it was at that identical
moment that Lois, summoned by the bell,
opened the door to find tall, bronzed,
gentiemsnly young fellow, with Harvard
and tennis and America written on every
line of his face and figure, waiting on the
steps. His countenance elongated per-
ceptibly when he was told that Miss Big
Glow was not at home.
"Will she be in this EVENING"" he
asked.
"No, sir, she's not coming home till
tomorrow"
sis she out of town."
"No, sir, she's down to her grand
mothers, old Madame Bigelow's, on the
lower street."
"Why, that was where she was last
week when called, and the time before
that" cried young Baum hastily. "Does
she go the .e always on Saturdays?"
Yes, sir, lately she has,"
"Could I see her there, if I called this
EVENING" Will she be at home, do you
know?"
"Oh, she's sure to be at home" replied
Lois. "But couldn't advise you to call,
sir"-reco.lecting her lesson. "The old
madame keeps Saturday night, and she's
very particular about it. She never sees
any company at all till the Sunday is
over"
Saturday night, does she? Then she
doesn't keep Sunday night too, I sup
pose. might call tomorrow evening"
eyes, sir, you might, but Miss Nita
won't be there then. She'll be here. We
kesp Sunday night, and the doctor is just
as particular about his evening as the
old lady is about hers. He never likes
Miss Nits to have company on Sundays"
at is rather too much" young Baum
said to himself, Z" that they should keep
both evenings, and that they should hap
pen to be the only evenings out of the
week when L can get away"
He looked SO blankly thwarted and
disappointed that Lois felt her heart
soften with compa ssion.
"It's a real pity, sir" che said. "If
you'd happened to come just little ear
lier, you'd "a met Miss Nita walking
across. She generally starts about half
past five, because the old lady begins to
keep at shutdown"
Did Lois mean to give hintP If she
did, she was disappointed, for Ned Baum
seemed not to catch her meaning. He
thanked her in sad, civil way, as he
handed her his card, and walked reluct-
antly down the path.
"Poor lad" said Lois to herself, "It's
a real shame. Miss Nita, she'll be sorry,
perhaps, when it's too late"
She carried the card in and laid it in
Nita's little writing desk. Within the
desk, in secret compartment, lay five
other cards, exactly similar. They re-
present five other occasions on which
Nita had similarly played at hide-and-
seek with her lover. She knew that, ex-
cept at these periodic intervals, it was
not possible for him to get away from his
post OF junior partner in an over-worked
L III